For a brief moment it was like 2007 all over again; a near capacity
Silverstone crowd on their feet, rising to acclaim a home-grown talent of
thrilling speed and rich potential.

A full six years have passed since a rookie Lewis Hamilton took pole here for McLaren, and a whole torrent of water has passed under the bridge since that stunning debut season.

Hamilton’s temperament, maturity and lifestyle have all been called into question. No one, however, has ever doubted the Englishman’s raw pace and he showed it again yesterday.

A sensational lap, a full four tenths quicker than his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, means that for the first time since that day in 2007 the British Grand Prix will start with a home driver on pole. And how the crowd lapped it up.

It was all the more special because Hamilton had played down expectations to such an extent following practice on Friday, revealing that he had been struggling with the car’s balance.

The 28-year-old refused to say in the post-qualifying press conference whether he had been hamming it up the day before, but he could not disguise his delight at securing his second pole of the season; Rosberg ensuring a third front row lockout of the year for Mercedes.

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“It is incredible,” Hamilton said. “It feels just like it did in 2007. Just to see the crowd here today is fantastic. This is down to the team, they have done a phenomenal job. I haven’t felt 100 per cent comfortable in car all weekend so I’m happy to get a (good) lap.

“Obviously we’ve got a great car, it’s just that it’s sometimes difficult to find the right balance. Sometimes it’s like a wild bull. You have to tame it.”

Whether Hamilton can tame the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, and secure a first British victory since his own in 2008, now depends firstly on what sort of a start he can get, and secondly to what extent Mercedes have got on top of their tyre degradation issues.

“I think it is going to be tough to keep Seb behind,” Hamilton predicted. “But our long-run pace is not as bad as we have seen in the past so I am hoping with a bit of care we can nurture the tyres to get a good result.”

Vettel did not appear to argue. “We’ll see what happens tomorrow,” the triple world champion said.

“They are bloody quick in qualifying, almost in a different world on Saturday afternoons. I don’t know if Lewis found a shortcut but that was a phenomenal lap today.

“I don’t think that time was within reach. But I’m very happy with today – it [third] is a good position to start from.”

One thing is for sure, if Mercedes do claim victory, we can expect plenty more sniping over their ‘private’ tyre test for Pirelli in Barcelona last month.

That three-day, 1000km test, for which they were officially reprimanded last week, came just days after Mercedes struggled badly with degradation at the high-speed, high-downforce Circuit de Catalunya.

If they have managed to sort out those issues for the similarly high-speed Silverstone track, their rivals will be sure to cry foul.

Hamilton said he was not letting the intrigue distract him from his goal. “It’s the first time since 2008 that I’ve come here with a car I can really compete with,” he said in a rather pointed remark which was unlikely to have escaped the notice of former employers McLaren.

The Woking team’s woes continued, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez claiming 11th and 14th on the grid respectively, but there was better news for Scotland’s Paul di Resta; the Force India driver will line up a career-best fifth.

Daniel Ricciardo, hoping to claim Webber’s seat at Red Bull next year, took a mightily impressive sixth position in his Toro Rosso.

Around 100,000 pairs of eyes, though, will be strained on Hamilton; eager to see whether he can convert pole into a wildly popular victory, one which would surely reignite his championship hopes as well as a few conspiracy theories.